Raghunath Temple Jammu And Kashmir History and Interesting Facts

Raghunath Temple Quick Facts

Raghunath Temple Overview

Raghunath Temple is a Hindu temple, located at an altitude of 1,150 feet, north of the Tawi River in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. This temple is dedicated to Lord Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This temple is the largest and most prominent temple in North India. This temple was built between 1835 AD to 1860 AD by Maharaja Ranveer Singh and his father Maharaj Gulab Singh.

Raghunath Temple History

The Raghunath temple was built by Raja Gulab Singh, the ruler of the Dogra dynasty, in 1835, but the entire construction of the Temple was completed in 1860 by Raja Ranbir Singh, the son of Maharaja Gulab Singh. Temple reflects the ancient Hindu temple style. There are statues of many deities in the premises of the temple, but this temple is dedicated to Lord Rama.

The temple has an inscription located at the entrance, in which Gulab Singh and his brother Dhyan Singh are credited with building the temple in honor of a Mahant Jagannath in 1827 AD in Brahmic script. There were two terrorist attacks on the temple in the year 2002 in the month of March and November. In which the First attack was done by the terrorist organization and the second was done by the attackers of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Terrorists also opened fire on grenades in the attack. In this incident 13 pilgrims were killed and 40 pilgrims were injured. After which the temple was closed. But in 2003 the temple was reopened.

Raghunath Temple Interesting Facts

1. Raghunath Temple comprises a complex of 7 Hindu temples and many deities are worshiped in these complexes. But the presiding deity is Lord Rama who is also known as Raghunath, an incarnation of Vishnu.
2. Inside the Raghunath temple, the towers of all the temples are covered with gold.
3. The walls inside the temple are decorated with 300 types images of various deities including Surya and Shiva, which make the temple attractive.
4. Inside Temple is a school and a library that preserves over 6,000 manuscripts in several Indian languages, along with a remarkable collection of Sarada script and Sanskrit manuscripts.
5. The Raghunath Temple is an important scholarly and important source of Sarada script manuscripts and one of the largest collections of Hindu and Buddhist texts of the Kashmir tradition.
6. Raghunath Temple has been the initial proponent of the initiative for digitization of house manuscripts and has initiated initiatives to digitize ancient manuscripts from other parts of India.
7. The entrance to the temple bears the sun sign and is also built in an octagonal shape on top of a platform 5 feet (1.5 m) high.
8. The Temple's interior lists have paintings from the Jammu School of Painting, which have images from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, and Hindu epics, which depict deities such as Ganesha, Krishna, Sheshnashi Vishnu.
9. Apart from Themes related to mythology inside the temple, some of the paintings are related to secular tales, such as Kabir, a saint, who engaged in weaving and military personnel of the Dogra and Sikh communities, etc.
10. The main shrine of the temple houses the idol of Lord Rama, the family deity of the Dogra sect, in the sanctum sanctorum.
11. The Ramnavami festival of this temple is visible. Which is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Lord Rama.
12. Raghunath temple is visible from the outside in the form of five Kalash. The idols of Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana are installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
13. The most special thing about this temple is that statues of many characters of the Ramayana and Mahabharata periods are also installed in it. Which depicts the life span of Lord Rama.

How to reach Raghunath Temple

• The Nearest railway station to the Raghunath Temple is Tawi Railway Station and Udhampur Railway Station in Jammu. The temple is located at a distance of 6.6 km from it.
• Apart from this, the Nearest Airport to the temple is Jammu Airport. The temple is located at a distance of only 17 km from the airport.
• There is approximately 1 direct bus between Dehradun and Jammu. From which the Temple can be reached, this bus is a state transport bus, followed by state transport buses from Dehradun to Saharanpur and then from Saharanpur to Jammu by taking CNB JAT EXPRESS to reach the temple.